The Gift from a Card Game
by kazikamikaze24
Summary: Bridgette went to the beach to surf, only to find herself interested when she heard of a new lifeguard from a kid. Not only did she find two of the least expected people, but would soon find herself in a game for a cart of cards. One-shot! T for language!


The blond haired girl sighed as she drove up to the her favorite beach. The sun was bright, the wind danced around her with the gentle caress of a lover, and the sound of children happily playing in the water brought a smile to her face. When she had enough money for herself, she'd buy a house on the beach, or even build one herself, if only to enjoy everything the waves could offer her.

"Hi Bridgette!" Bridgette looked down to see a small girl with two brown pig tails wearing a pink one piece bathing suit.

"Hi Suzy! Are you enjoying the beach today?" Bridgette bent down to hug the little girl. Suzy came to the beach nearly every weekend with her parents, meaning that she could see the little girl each time she came to catch a wave.

"Yea, especially with the new lifeguard we have!" At this, Bridgette looked over the little girl's head to try and find this new life guard. After a moment of trying to find the life guard, she heard Suzy giggle and felt her left shoulder being tapped. "He's that way Bridgette!"

"Suzy, it's time for us to get pizza!" A woman shouted, making the little girl pull away from the hug.

"I'll see you later Bridgette! Bye!" As Suzy ran back to her mom, Bridgette smiled at the girl, thanking her for the tip before grabbing her surf board and walked towards the the second lifeguard hut. On this beach, there were four lifeguard huts, each being rather damaged due to some kids pulling a prank on the lifeguard in them, a dangerously powerful wave crashing to shore, or a speed boat colliding into one of the pillars. Each hut, despite the damages, have a lifeguard waiting to save someone's life, some even walking around just to make sure everyone is alright. There were moments when she thought to herself that maybe she should become a lifeguard, maybe even a swimming instructor, due to her passion for surfing and everything within the water.

Lately, those thoughts have come about due to Geoff, a teenage boy she met during her time on Total Drama Island. Geoff was a happy, energetic guy who couldn't hurt a fly if he wanted to. During her time on the island, he grew onto her, making him the one thing that she wanted to see each and everyday, up until the day of her being kicked off of course. From there, she began to think about her time on the island, the friends she was glad to have, and the few enemies she made, when she realized that, during her time on Playa Des Losers, that she didn't get to know one person out of the entire group on the island.

Cody.

Cody was, for lack of a better word, a geek, from what everyone on Playa Des Losers told her during her time there, but didn't know where he was, nor did they truly care. It shouldn't of been hard to find a brown haired, light brown polo wearing teen boy with blue cargo-like pants and sneakers, but she couldn't find him despite how much she tried. Oddly enough, she found him a few days later on Sunday morning with a package in his hand. When he saw her, he ran as fast as he could, dropping something on the ground.

_'I still don't know what it is.'_ Bridgette thought to herself as she looked back at the area where she parked her car. Since her family didn't believe in technology as much as most other families, she had a limited time on the computer, mostly using the few at her library or high school, rather than try to convince her parents to buy one. The thing he dropped was a card from some game called Magic, The Gathering called Outrider of Jhess. She didn't know how to explain it exactly, but something about the card made her keep it, rather than throw it away, and took it everywhere she went to. Then, without warning, she felt herself hit something rather hard, and groaned a bit as she fell on her butt.

"I swear, if its another kid throwing a Frisbee at us, I'm snapping it in half!" A voice that Bridgette felt was familiar spoke.

"Dude, you can't do that to them. You're supposed to be doing your job anyway." At the second person's voice, Bridgette widened her eyes as her mind kicked into gear.

_'No way!'_ She stood up and hurried up the small steps and grabbed the doorknob.

"Well it isn't as if you're trying to stop me from not doing, it?" Bridgette opened the door, her mouth opening in shock as she realized who the two people were. "Oh god, its surfer girl." The second person turned around and widened his eyes.

"Bridgette?"

"Cody, _NOAH!_"

"Congrats, you remembered us from a year ago. I guess blonds have come a far way from the primitive stage of evolution." At that comment, Bridgette glared at the cynic teen, who shrugged his shoulders and began turning four turned cards upwards. "Its your turn by the way Cody."

"So what are you two doing in a lifeguard hut? This is to be used by official lifeguards only!" Bridgette asked in a stern tone, making Cody shake at her words. Was she really that frightening to him? She hoped not, as it reminded her of how she reacted to Eva when she came back to the show.

"If you haven't realized malibu, I'm wearing the special life vest only a lifeguard can get from the boss, and I even have the bells and whistles to go with it." As if to prove his point further, Noah grabbed the whistle that was wrapped around his neck and blew it, making Cody smile at the action.

"Alright, so you're a lifeguard, as surprising as it is, why?" Noah shrugged again.

"I needed the job, and when I realized that Cody only lived a few blocks away from here, I decided that the job was worth it. He is the only worth while person I know that can beat me in Magic." Bridgette walked closer to Cody, who turned his head back to the table, and noticed that they had cards that looked similar to the one Cody dropped last year. Some of them were black, green, and even gold, though it didn't help her figure out what exactly the game was all about.

_'At least I know who the card Cody dropped at Playa Des Losers belonged to.'_ She thought as she put her surf board against a wall and sat on the chair next to the geek.

"W-what are you doing?" Cody asked, stuttering a bit. She smiled at him, which seemed to make his face turn red.

"I want to see how you play this game. Its called Magic, The Gathering right?"

"Y-yea! I didn't know you played Bridgette." Cody blurted out in a loud, nervous tone. Bridgette couldn't help but to giggle at the childish look on his face, and the light blush he had sweetened the deal.

"No, but I found this card last year and kept it as a good luck charm. So how do you play boys?" A screech came from a walkie talkie, making her wince at how high pitched the sound was.

**"Noah, are you there, over."** Bridgette held back a giggle as she saw Noah sigh and pinch his nose as he reached for the device. He really didn't like to do anything, did he?

"I'm here, now what do ya want Drew?"

**"Its your time to survey the beach. If you get started now, you should be done in about an hour and a half."**

"AN HOUR AND A HALF!" Bridgette turned her face from Noah and began to giggle, unlike Cody, who was on the ground holding his mouth, kicking at the floor every now and again.

**"I told you this when you came for the job. Now hop to it, I'm at station one if you need anything, and I swear, if I don't see you leave your station in the next minute, I'll come down there and drag you out myself, OVER!"** The station died, causing Cody to laugh to the fullest extent as Bridgette wiped a stray tear from her eye. Noah's reactions were funny, much more here than they were on the show at least. Then, as soon as Noah turned towards them, she saw that he was smirking, rather than frowning.

"He reminds me of Chris." At that, Bridgette began laughing louder than Cody, clutching her sides as he walked past her for the door. "Oh yea, Cody," Bridgette turned to Noah, who was looking at the teen on the floor, "Since I'm going to be doing my job, you can teach Bridgette how to play Magic."

"WHAT!" Cody stood up and went for the door, only for it to slam on his face.

_'Ouch! That had to be painful...'_ She thought as she heard Noah walk down the steps.

"Remember, our spare cards are in the bags, and the mini fridge is filled with drinks and sandwiches! Later." Noah shouted as he walked away, causing Bridgette to look at Cody, who was blushing at her.

_'Was he ever this shy on the show? I don't remember much about him though, so maybe this is the real him?'_ She thought to herself as Cody grabbed a backpack that was hanging from a hook.

"Alright." Cody smiled as he sat down, and began to put all of Noah's cards back in a small, plastic box. "You sure you want to know how to play? Its easier than Yu-Gi-Oh, don't get me wrong, but it can still be boring." Bridgette shook her head at his question. She knew about Yu-Gi-Oh, especially since she watched it when she was younger, and knew that NOTHING could be as complicated as that card game.

"Cody, I'm sure I want to learn. Maybe I can put my good luck charm to good use this way." Cody chuckled and opened the backpack, pulling out a large binder that was thicker than his head, and was twice the size of it too! "Oh my!"

"Don't worry, there are a lot less cards than it looks actually." Cody forced his cards that were on the table to the side as he placed the binder where they once were. "Magic relies on four things. Your land, creatures, sorcery spells, and instant spells. Lands," Cody opened the binder and pulled out a card that showed a tropical island on it, "are the core of the game. Each one of these provides one mana, which, when tapped," Cody grabbed another card and tilted it to the side, "means that they're providing you one mana, or one point, for you to use on one or more cards."

"So, its like money, to a certain extent?"

"Yes!" Cody's smile widened, making Bridgette hold back a chuckle at how child-like he was acting at the moment. Then, he pulled out four more cards. Each had a beautiful picture on it, though the words and names on each one were different. "Now, when you have enough lands out, you would tap them to play a card from your hand, well, most of the time its from your hand. Your creatures are what will help you deal damage to your opponent, or save your life points, by attacking and blocking."

"Wait wait," Bridgette stated, putting the Island card she was looking at on the table, "You lost me. What do you mean they'll help you deal damage to your opponent, or save your life points?" Cody blushed and rubbed the back of his neck, as if it were an apology.

"Well, most creatures have an ability you can use right away to help you out, or to hurt your opponent. As for the damage and blocking, you see how this creature here has a 1/1?" Cody handed her a blue card called Thornwind Faeries, which reminded her of Izzy more than it should of. On the bottom right of the card was a one one like he pointed out. "The one on your right if its toughness, while the one on the left is its power. Basically, if I was to attack you with a creature that had 2/1, then you could use your Thornwind Faeries to block one damage, leaving you with one less, rather than two less. If you were attacking me, then you would be dealing me one damage point. Do you understand Bridgette?"

"Y-yea." Bridgette said while focusing on Cody and his explanation. The smile on his face, the way he talked so passionately about the game, and just how he looked reminded her of Geoff, except there was something _more_ to him. He wasn't focusing just solely on the cards, like how Geoff would focus on telling her all of the different parties he hosted and went to, and stopped to ask her if she was confused at anything he said, unlike Geoff, who sometimes forgot that she was even there in the first place.

As he explained more and more about the game, she found herself, wanting to play it, just to see the reactions Cody would make as they played. She didn't know why, but he reminded her so much of Geoff that it hurt, but made it her so relaxed around him that she didn't dismiss the thought of holding him on her lap. Sorcery spells, instants, enchantments, auras, and she even payed attention to the small bit of knowledge of arcane spells that he knew, and found herself smiling at him.

_'What's wrong with me?'_ Bridgette mentally scolded herself. _'I've only met him a few times on the show, and now that I'm actually holding a conversation of sorts with him, I'm clamming up, and comparing him to Geoff. That's not fair to both of them, or to all three of us.'_

"Bridgette..." Bridgette shook her head and noticed that Cody looked at her with a slightly hurt look. "Did I bore you?"

"NO!" She exclaimed, scolding herself even more in her head. "I'm just thinking about the island, and how everything ended with the show." Cody's face changed from hurt to an embarrassed grin, making her giggle. "Aww, did someone remember all the fun he had at the after party?"

Once Owen won the money he so rightfully deserved, Chris, the host of the show Total Drama Island, tried to get him to give up the cash so everyone could participate in a man hunt for more money. Instead of agreeing with the host like many, including herself, thought he would, he actually said no due to him promising a wicked party for everyone. Though it made the host pissed, Owen offered Chris to record the party for his benefit, and to get some interviews with everyone during the party, if the stage hands could find them of course.

"It wasn't my fault that Eva asked me out! Duncan spiked the punch, remember!" Bridgette shivered at the name, remembering how much the strong beast-girl hated her for voting her off on the second episode. If she ever met her outside of the show, she was sure that no one would even find a lock of her blond hair after Eva was done with her. She had to admit though, seeing Eva in a frilly pink dress drunk with DJ's bunny in her hands was a sight to remember. If she remembered correctly, she had a picture or two of her somewhere in her room. "So how are you and Geoff Bridgette?"

"Huh?"

"You and Geoff, ya know, the blond party man with the plan? The guy with the cowboy hat and the pink button up that didn't want to vote you off? The-"

"Alright Cody, I remember." Bridgette chuckled at Cody's antics, but looked down and slowly sighed. "Well, he lived too far away for us to actually be together, so we just stayed as friends. We still talk to each other by letter, don't get me wrong, but whatever we felt on the island just wasn't there in his letters." When she looked up, she saw that Cody was frowning a bit, and put his right hand on her left shoulder.

"I'm sure he meant all the feelings he could in each of his letters." At that, she smirked at him.

"Cody, each letter had some type of stain that I dare didn't look up." Cody slightly nodded, sighing as he put some of the cards back into the ridiculously large binder.

"Well at least he talked to you, ya know? I'm sure, if he had a way to get to you, he would come and visit you for a while."

"He has," Bridgette began, rubbing her forehead as she remembered what happened, "But it was for a party he set up, and I had to study for my exams. He wasn't the most patient person, especially when it came to parties, so I told him to go on without me. I didn't want to make him miss the party ya know?" Cody nodded, not saying anything at her. "After that, with each letter he sent, he told me more and more about the parties he went to, rather than what he did outside of them. We still talk though, and, in a way, he reminds me of you Cody, especially now that I know how much you're into this game." Cody's face turned dark red, making her giggle at how tomato-like his head was, and patted his head. "So I gotta ask, if the game needs sixty cards minimum, then why did it look like you and Noah were playing with more than that?"

"That is because we were playing a different kind of Magic game called commander. Its a one hundred card game with only one copy of each card, with the exception of basic land cards, and a legendary creature to act as your commander."

"What's so special about them?" At this, Cody flipped through a number of pages and pulled out a few cards, handing them to her to look at as he searched for the 'last one' he mumbled to himself. The first card was Grand Arbiter Augustin IV, a card that even she, a new comer, could recognize as a useful card for any player of the game with its ability to lessen the cost of blue and white spell cards you use, while adding one more mana for your opponent's cards to cost. The second card was Empyrial Archangel, a beautiful card that made itself an Izzy-like card, due to how much damage she took over the show, but kept on coming to win the game. Despite how good the card was, she whistled at the cost it took to summon her to the field.

"Here it is!" Cody exclaimed, making her look up, only to see a card in her face. Muttering "thank you," she grabbed the card and began to read it. The card was another angel called Jenara, Asura of War, and it could be extremely useful, especially is the user who played this card had plenty of mana to power her up with. "A commander can be destroyed, but not removed. Basically, it returns to the commander zone, waiting to be brought out once more. Also, I forgot to mention this, but in a commander deck, you play with cards that are of the commander's mana cost. So, for example, Jenara's mana cost is blue, white, and green, which means you can only have cards with those colors, with the exception of artifacts and lands of course."

"Wow." Bridgette muttered, remembering how large Cody and Noah's decks were as she walked into the room. Not only that, but each had six cards in their hand. _'Could they of been starting the game? I wonder how long it takes to finish a commander game.'_

"From the look on your face, I'm guessing you're thinking about how long it takes to complete a game?" Bridgette felt herself blush a little as she nodded. She couldn't be that easy to read, could she? "When it comes to commander, it could take a while, like an hour, but commander was meant to be played with a group of people, rather than with two like Noah and I were." After his explanation, everything became silent. The quietness was comforting, but stale, as if it was unwanted.

_'Maybe you don't want silence.'_ A voice commented in her head. _'You saw how happy he was talking to you, more to you than about the game. So why not ask him to help you make a deck to play with? It would be fun.'_ The voice stated, giggling in her head as she looked at the cards he handed her.

_'Well, I did ask to learn the game, and its better to learn by playing, right?'_ She thought. "Hey Cody, can I use these cards for my commander deck, if you're willing to help me make one of course." The smile on Cody's face didn't do justice on how happy she could tell he was to hear her say what she did.

By the time that they were done making her commander deck, she realized that her stomach was growling, which was imitated by Cody's own, causing the two of them to laugh at their situation. As Cody went to grab some snacks from the fridge, she looked at her new deck and smiled at it.

Her deck ran on green, blue, and white creatures with various unique land cards to grant her free mana. Her white creatures were mainly angels, which were high costing, and were saved for later in the game. She had merfolk for her blue category, and various spiders and beasts for green, in order to help her be offensive and have some good defensive creatures in case her opponent brought out something good before she could. She didn't have too many artifacts, though they worked like her auras and instants, granting her creatures a boost in toughness or an additional ability.

"Hey you two lovebirds." Bridgette turned around and saw Noah, who had a sun burn, a patch of sand on his left shoulder, and a crab on his right. As she was about to comment on the crab, he shook his head. "Don't ask, but Sabastian won't leave my side now."

"Sabastian, like the lobster in the Little Mermaid?" Cody asked with a smirk on his face, causing Noah to glare at the guy.

"Just for that Cody, you can go out to my car and get a plastic bucket for me to take Sabastian home in." Cody was, from her perspective, about to say something, only for Noah to point to the door. "Go, or else I'll tell her about Sierra." With that said, Cody ran out of the hut faster than he ran from the bear on the island.

"Sierra?" She asked. Noah shrugged and sat on the chair he sat in last time.

"She's a freaky stalker fangirl of his that he doesn't like. We didn't even know that she existed until we caught her stalking him during a trip to the mall. Did you know that Cody's actually thankful for not being the most popular character on the show?" THAT was something that she would of never thought, considering how he acted towards the girls on the show.

"You sure about that?" She asked him, only for him to nod. "Wow, who would of thought that he wouldn't want the attention of a fangirl huh?" Bridgette chuckled, shuffling her deck before drawing seven cards from the top. She accidentally dropped her Jenara, Asura of War on the table and was about to pick it up when Noah plucked it.

"Oh, her." Noah stated as he smirked at the card. "This little card here has caused me a bit of trouble in the past. Is Cody running a new commander deck?" Bridgette shook her head and gently pushed the rest of her commander deck away from Cody's stack of cards.

"No, she's my commander for the deck Cody helped me make. He gave it to me as a gift for learning how to play." Bridgette wouldn't admit this to anyone, but seeing Noah actually being shocked for a change made him seem more human, likeable, and, dare she say, friendly. Then, as soon as the wide eyes and the gaping mouth appeared, they were sealed away, returning to thin, glaring eyes with a smirk on his face.

"So I take it he also gave you Empyrial Archangel as well?" Bridgette nodded, not understanding why his smirk suddenly grew in size. "Congrats are in order then. You've managed to gain Cody's blessing, meaning that he likes you more than he ever did that goth chick." At the mention of goth chick, she knew that Noah was talking about Gwen, but that piece of information didn't help her figure out what he meant with Cody liking her.

"What are you talking about?" Noah pointed to the symbol right below Jenara's picture.

"Did he explain the card rating to you yet?" As I was about to answer, he shook his head. "Never mind, I can tell he didn't. You see, just like with any card game that needs a profit, they have a rating system to tell the buyers which card is common, uncommon, rare, or something very special. This card, like the Empyrial Archangel, are two of those very special cards due to them being mythic rares. Thanks to the constant flow of new cards, people are more tuned to selling the cards they don't need, rather than keeping them like Cody and I do, as you've must of seen with the binder, but we still keep our first mythic rares as a sign of good luck. A blessing of good faith from the game itself, if you will."

"So, you're trying to tell me that..." Noah's smirk changed to a sly grin as he handed me back the card.

"Yep, he's giving you two of his lucky charms in order for your own fate in the game to benefit you." Bridgette didn't know what to say, that much she knew. Considering the word mythic was used for magical things, or something very valuable or priceless, she knew that the cards had to be worth something, and for Cody to simply give them to her with a careless smile on his face?

"That doesn't explain to me why you think he likes me Noah."

"I don't think," Noah leaned back, "I KNOW he does. He didn't nearly do as much for Gwen, let alone any other girl on that horrid island, especially Eva." Again, that name made her cringe. "Its not a bad thing to know that he likes you, just gives you more of a reason to manipulate him for your benefit in the future."

"WHAT? I WOULD _NEVER_ DO THAT TO HIM!" Bridgette screamed, causing Noah to press his hands to his ears.

"Its a freaking joke malibu! Sheesh!" Noah stood up and grabbed a soda from the mini fridge, returning with a scowl on his face. "Anyway, the only reason I'm even telling you this is because, out of anyone that he could of liked, I approve of you, and only you. Think of it as my blessing to you. Now hush." Before she could ask him what he meant by that, the door opened, revealing Cody with a long, gray plastic bucket in his hands. He, unlike Noah, who had Sebastian, now had a seagull on his head, leaning down as if to smile at her.

"Uh Cody, what is a seagull-" Cody raised his hands as a shrug.

"I went into Noah's car, reached for the bucket, only for it to land on my thigh. I got it off, only for it to cling to my head and not leave. There's no way I can take him home though, so I'll probably lock him in here with a sandwich or two and have you call Drew to check the station." Cody stated, looking at Noah, who chuckled with a dark undertone.

"I knew there was a reason besides us being fans of xxxHolic and Magic that I kept you as a friend." Cody smiled back and sat on his chair, looking at Bridgette before focusing on her commander deck.

"So guess what I just got called about?" Bridgette noticed that he had an excited look in his eyes. Whatever it was, it was important to Cody. "Mc Ashy's shop is closing down!"

"You can't be serious..." Noah responded with a maniacal tone.

_'He really has some issues, doesn't he?'_ She thought as Cody nodded.

"Even better, is that everyone in the stores is hitting everything except the cards, which are also half off! Some even being seventy percent off!"

"WAIT! Who told you this?" Noah glared, pointing at the cell phone in Cody's pocket.

"Harold did. Apparently he has a friend up here who is a major Star Wars fan who told him about the store closing. Do you think you can get the rest of the day off for us to go and-" Noah shook his head, pulled out a pair of keys, and handed them to Bridgette. She looked at them with a surprised look before looking at him.

"What?"

"Since I can't leave, I need for you to drive him to the Mc Ashy for him to buy the stuff." Before she could even ask him anything, Noah handed Cody his wallet and pushed the two out of the station. "And don't come back until I see both of you bringing in tons of cards in your arms!"

**SLAM**

At the sound of multiple locks clicking into place, Bridgette looked at Cody, who was equally as shocked as she was, and sighed as the seagull on his head flew away, making a snicker-like sound. Without any warning, Cody grabbed her left hand and began to run towards the parking lot, shocking her at how strong he was for looking quite thin.

"To Mc Ashy's!"

* * *

><p>When Bridgette heard the name Mc Ashy's, she thought the building would be small, or possibly as big as the usual burger joint, without the food of course. When she realized that Mc Ashy's was twice size of a superstore, she couldn't hold back the shock she felt. The only blessing she found from being at Mc Ashy's was that she was able to find a parking spot close to the front of the store. As she released her seat belt from its lock, she saw that Cody was pulling out his wallet, as well as his own, and pushed the two into the pocket on his chest.<p>

_'Wow, he's determined isn't he?'_ Cody opened the door, hurried to her side, and opened it, causing her to smile. In a way, he was still the same Cody from the island, helping her as he would help any of the girls, but there was something different about it. "Thanks Cody. So where are the cards in this place?" Oddly enough, Cody brought out a folded piece of paper, and unfolded it to reveal the layout of the store.

"The cards are in the back of the store, next to the book section, behind the magazines, yet across from the clothes. Oddly enough, no matter what path we go to get to them, we'll be seen by the people inside, and each path has a obstacle that will have tons of people around it. From the east entrance we're at, it would be the car lot, in the main entrance, its the jewelry and toys, and to the west its electronics and food. I'm sure there are carts in this entrance, just like in all the others, at worst, we'll grab baskets to carry them."

"You got this planned like a Mission Impossible movie, don't ya?" She joked, causing him to chuckle awkwardly as he tried to hide the blush on his face. She stepped out of the car, closing and locking it, before she walked ahead of him, humming the Mission Impossible theme playfully.

"Stop that!" He playfully shouted, laughing as she hummed it louder. As they walked into the store, she realized that it was just as busy as Cody predicted it would be. The cashiers were being held up by the long lines of people waiting to buy their claimed items, making it harder for people who wanted to enter the store to actually get into it, due to how they were blocking the true entrance. Was she supposed to feel scared at the annoyed, some-what angry faces some of the people waiting in line had? "Hey Bridgette, I got us a cart!" She turned her head, and saw that the cart was nearly perfect like the other carts, except that one of the wheels on it, the back one to the left to be exact, was actually a wooden cube.

"...Were there any others?" Cody shook his head.

"Unless you want the one with wooden pyramids as all four wheels, this was the only one. I swear, its as if Chris set this up for us." At that, she couldn't help but to agree with him. Ever since Total Drama Island ended, she would see Chris, Chef Hatchet, or one of the interns from the set walked around her town, as if trying to recruit new contestants. She even saw them set up challenges in broad daylight in order for the poor, unsuspecting citizens to fall victim to his traps. Even the other contestants, at least the ones she talked to, told her that similar things happened to them as well.

It didn't help that the few people she talked to were Leshawna, Gwen, Geoff, Trent, Beth, and DJ. Lindsay only called her once, though it was to ask if she was Tyler. When she tried to get Justin's number and email, for pure communication reasons, he merely laughed and said he didn't want to associate with them anymore, ruining her image of him forever. Noah and Cody were actually the first to leave the island, making it impossible for her to get their information, Heather, Duncan, Courtney, and Eva were a definant NO on her list, leaving Izzy, Owen, Harold, Ezekiel, Katie, Sadie, and Tyler the only ones she didn't try to contact.

Now that she thought about it, it was unfair of her to leave the last group of people out of talking to them. Truth be told, its probably for that reason that Ezekiel is now something akin to a rapper in America, Heather being as evil as she is, and Noah being so sarcastic to everyone within a foot of him.

It also didn't help that she also made some comments about the NoCo pairing every now and again.

"Hello, earth to Bridgette!" She shook her head, snapping herself from her thoughts when she realized that Cody was jumping up and down in front of her, making her take a few steps back. "Welcome back from La La Land, you ready to get going?" She nodded, replaying what he said in her head while comparing it to the look of playfulness on his face.

_'I guess he's picked up more from Noah than some cards.'_ She walked beside Cody as they made their way through the giant super store. Items were being thrown from the shelves, usually from one person to another, some were even taking the shelves apart for reasons unknown! She saw plenty of kids running about without their parents, some pulling on a doll or an action figure box they wanted, and then there were the ones who were opening the boxes without a care in the world. Then, there were the noises that were surrounding her. The screaming, the shouting, yelling, glass breaking, but the worst were the sounds of a child crying. She felt a hand on top of her own, and turned to see Cody with a caring, yet worried look on his face.

"You can wait in the car if you want. These things get pretty brutal, even worse than a Black Friday sale." Bridgette considered the option, especially since he asked.

"What about you though? It's a madhouse in here!"

"Don't worry about me." He said, showing her a sly smile that made her more concerned. "Noah and myself have been though a few of these sales before, especially with our families coming together every now and again." Shaking her head, she held his hand and smiled at him.

"I should be fine. If anything, I'll have Sir Cody here to defend me from these barbaric people." She joked, causing him to puff out his chest, which made her laugh. With the mood lightened, they continued through the super store, making small talk about the things they've done in the past week, their family life, and what they've done with the other Total Drama Island contestants during their year of freedom. She found herself enjoying their little chat, and the change of topics that came with it.

She learned many things about him, such as his full name, how he actually got over his fear of defusing a time bomb, though it was replaced with bears, and that he had a new appreciation for sushi, which was due to Harold taking him out to a sushi bar near them. He must of knew of her deep respect for sea creatures and protecting them, since he quickly added that the fish that were used were either bred in fish farms, or were of dangerous carnivores, such as sharks or blow fish. When she asked him where Harold lived, he replied that he lived about forty five minutes away from the beach, but from where he lived, Harold's house was only twenty minutes away.

_'I can't believe I had Cody, Noah, and Harold living so close to me.'_ Bridgette told herself as they went through the birthday card aisle in order to bypass the crowd around the automobile section. Cody pulled out the map, making her stop and turn to him as he looked at the isle marker, then back to the map.

"I don't believe it." Cody suddenly stated, making her walk behind him and look at the map. Since she was taller than him, she was able to simply look down at the map, but didn't see what made Cody happy. "All we need to do is take a right past this aisle and we're in the clear for the cards!" Bridgette could understand why he was happy, and couldn't blame him for showing it. The sooner they got out of this zoo, the better! They hurried out of the aisle, turning right and continued straight down the new aisle until she saw the sigh that said "AISLE 37: COLLECTABLES" above them. As she walked into the aisle, she couldn't help but to widen her eyes at everything she saw in front of her.

"There's so many of them!" She nearly yelled, controlling herself at the last second as she looked at the long, metal shelves that held the plethora of different cards. Baseball, basketball, soccer, discontinued series, foreign cards, you name it, it was most likely somewhere on one of these shelves, she figured. She saw Cody hungrily looking down the aisle, trying to find the Magic cards, but she slowly walked, poking her head through each row of cards and noticed that there were more in the next aisle. Curious, she walked over there, and noticed that there were more people on this side. They were mostly kids, most likely around the age of ten to thirteen, but there was one figure that peaked her interest. The person wore a black hooded sweater that hid their face, and wore black cargo pants with a perfect cart beside them.

"Yes!" Much to her shock, a female voice came from the hooded person as they grabbed more packs and boxes from the higher shelves.

"Did you find the pack I was looking for miss?" One of the kids asked, causing the hooded female to nod and hand the boy a pack of Yu-Gi-Oh cards. "Thank you so much! I gotta find my mom now, bye!" The child ran off, leaving the other kids to wait around as the woman continued looking through the shelves, tossing more and more Yu-Gi-Oh packs into her cart. Then, out of the corner of her eye, Bridgette noticed that there were Magic cards right next to the Yu-Gi-Oh shelf, and carefully got around the patient kids to start grabbing them. She didn't know which ones were the newest, which might be a problem if Cody didn't like the ones she grabbed, but, if necessary, she'll buy these with her own money, if only to give to Cody as a thank you gift for teaching her how to play.

"Hm, I didn't expect to see a girl playing Magic." The hooded woman said to her. Bridgette smiled as they continued grabbing packs and some small boxes, Intro Packs she believed hers were called.

"I just learned how to play actually. I'm actually here with the guy who taught me how to play to take advantage of the sale." The woman laughed, which wouldn't of been odd, except that it sounded very familiar to her.

"I don't blame you. I'm actually here for the same reason, except for Yu-Gi-Oh, and that I was taught how to play this about two weeks ago. Its so complicated." Bridgette chuckled and saw that the woman dropped one of the packs she had in her hand. Seeing that it dropped near her foot, she leaned down to pick it up, only for the stranger to do the same thing. When she looked up, she was shocked to see one of the few people she didn't expect to see in the store, let alone in the card aisle of all places.

"H-H-"

"Don't you dare say anything!" The person whispered with a dark, angered tone, slapping her free hand over Bridgette's mouth. The sting that followed the strike hurt, but it was the look in the girl's eyes that made her start to shiver. "Sorry," She removed her hand from her mouth, "I'm not ready for everyone to know my hidden passion."

"Why? It's nothing to be ashamed of." Bridgette said, handing the woman the pack she dropped. The sound of many boxes falling filled her ears, followed by a shaky "I'm OKAY!" from Cody, caused her to let out a soft giggle.

"Considering who I am exactly, what I represent, and what I've done on the show, I'd be eaten alive if anyone found out. As a-"

"There you are Bridgette!" She turned her head, and saw Cody coming around the corner with a cart that had a few pack of cards. "Glad to see that no one else is around here, trying to get all of the packs." At that comment, she turned back towards the woman, only to see that her, as well as the cart she had, was gone.

_'Looks like she got faster ever since the show ended.'_ Bridgette thought as she placed her current findings in the cart. Cody's eyes widened at the sight, especially when he grabbed a particular box and hugged it for dear life. That box was longer, thicker, and had the words Booster Box written across its red design.

"I can't believe you found an Innistrad Booster Box! These aren't supposed to come out til next month!" Cody placed the item back in the cart, pushed the cart where she was, and began his 'dive' into the items. For a second, he turned towards the Yu-Gi-Oh section and whistled. "Wow, someone cleaned them out of all their stock." She chuckled, keeping what happened a minute ago a secret as she continued to go through their Magic stock. Out of everything they pulled, they only found two more Innistrad Booster Boxes, with the rest being 2012 Core Set, New Phyrexia, 2011 Core Set, and various other packs that she didn't know how to pronounce.

"Hey, these are the official Commander decks, right?" Bridgette asked as she picked up the long box. Cody nodded, pulling up one of his own.

"They're called Pre-commanders by some fans, since they're the building blocks to making your own commander deck. Each focuses on the three mana colors you see on the top of the box, and the three over sized holographic cards are the ones who act best as the commander for that deck. You interested in getting it?" Bridgette looked at it, the red, white, and black mana symbols staring back at her, until she put it back.

"Despite it being having white and some angels, I don't run red and black." Cody leaned over and grabbed it, placing it and the one he had in the cart.

"Then I'll get it, let you look through it, and you can pull whatever you like, okay?" Bridgette nodded, smiling at what he offered for her. He was so kind, and quite the gentleman, why was he so different on the show?

"So how much do you think this is going to cost us?" The cart was halfway full, packs and boxes spiking out diagonally from the various items in it, and Cody just dropped more packs into it. He leaned over to the shelves, pointing at each price tag, and acted as if he was working on a calculator.

"Considering how this section is listed as sixty percent off, we should be around the three hundreds."

"THREE HUNDREDS! Cody, I don't have enough-"

"Bridgette, chill!" Bridgette shook her head and took a deep breath. For a second there, she pictured Cody with a cowboy hat on, and he just said something that Geoff was known to say. "Noah and I have this covered. Both of us have about six hundred put together, so don't worry about buying anything, unless you want to buy something for yourself."

"Sorry. I overreacted." Cody smiled and grabbed a few more items before turning the cart around. Or, tried to.

"Stupid block of a wheel. It makes turning around so troublesome. Now lets head to one of the check out lines."

As they walked to the front of the store, the speakers above them were turning on and off. For a little bit, they could hear hushed voices trying to talk to one another before they turned the speaker system off. Another thing that confused them was that there were less people around than when they entered the super store, a sign that worried Bridgette.

Now, not many people knew this about her, but she was a bit of a worrier. She wasn't one when she was younger, then again, not many kids worried about things other than toys, food, and playing with their friends. What caused her to change was when she had her first serious accident while surfing, which was her first time ever learning how. She was cocky, not caring for any of the instructions her instructor told her, and paid for it by nearly drowning. Ever since that fateful day, she has been more cautious than ever, learning to trust her sixth sense and the words of a skilled, wise individual with a diploma.

**"GGGOOOOODDDDD MORNING SHOPPERS!"**

Sadly, her sixth sense hasn't been proven wrong yet.

"No, it can't be..." She heard Cody mumble. She shook his right shoulder in order to snap him out of his surprised daze.

"The sooner we get out of here, the better!" She whispered, taking the precaution of there being additional cameras around, or hidden microphones.

**"If you can't recognize my devilishly handsome voice, then you've haven't had the honor of getting to know me, the famous Chris McLean, host of TOTAL! DRAMA! ISLAND!"** Screams instantly surrounded them, causing Bridgette to hold her ears as they hurried to the front of the store. She saw that people were dropping whatever things they had in their arms, picking up their children and running to the front of the store, hoping to see the most evil, twisted show host she had ever seen, let alone met! She couldn't find the right word to describe how horrible that man could be, let alone any to describe how he is!

**"JUST GET ON WITH IT PRETTY BOY!"** The familiar voice of Chef Hachet ordered.

**"Sheesh! You spat on my handsome face."** Cody began to laugh as they finally made it to the main aisle, only to find that most of the cashiers were being blocked by interns, security guards, and even a bear, most likely the same bear that...

'Oh crap!' Bridgette turned to Cody, who was starting to shake at the sight of the bear blocking aisle 19 **(1)**.

"B-b-b-BEAR!" Cody pushed the cart away from the aisle, ironically towards the area where they entered, when Bridgette grabbed him. If she hadn't, he would of hit an elderly man.

"Calm down Cody! Its not going to get you!" She had her arms wrapped around his stomach, considering he was shorter than her, and pulled him towards her. After a few moments, she felt his chest rise less than before, showing that he was calming down.

**"Now, for all of you Mc Ashy shoppers, I bet you want to take full advantage of these wonderful sales, am I right people!"** If the screams from a few minutes ago were loud, then the ones that suddenly erupted around her were in a whole different class of high pitched noises. **"That's why we've set up a little game today called Shopping Cart Madness! Somewhere in this store, four shoppers have a cart that have some type of wooden wheel on it. One cart might have only one wheel, while another might have four wooden wheels, each a different shape! Whoever comes to the finish line with one of these carts first will have all of the items within it free!"**

_'Oh, I KNEW IT!'_ She mentally screamed, glaring at the wooden cube of a wheel they had. Cody wiggled out of her hold and grabbed a spare, empty cart.

"I figured that if I put some random stuff in it, no one will notice your wooden wheel and we can make it to this finish line easily." Cody whispered, causing her to nod as she started throwing random clothes from the rack next to her into it. She noticed a plastic sword that, she assumed, was thrown in there by a parent, and handed it to Cody.

"If our plan fails, wanna get in the cart and whack them while I push?" The grin on Cody's face said it all.

"You better start putting as many booster boxes and intro packs in that baby seat as possible, because I, Sir Cody, will valiantly protect the cargo of the Magic Knights!" The two of them shared a laugh as he helped her put as many of the boxes in the baby seat as they could, laying the Innistrad boxes on their wider parts in order to prevent any of the smaller boxes from slipping through the leg openings. As an extra precaution, they grabbed a few clothes and placed them at the front of her cart, in order to give him a place to sit, or stand if need be, to defend their cart, as well as not crush any of the packs.

**"Here are the RULES! You can steal the cart from the people who have these special carts, only if they have fully let go of them! You can't push the cart through an emergency exit, bathroom, lounge, or the loading dock in order to bypass any contestants! Also, be warned that things might get physical, so anyone who has a child with them MUST leave the kid with another parent, with one of the security guards so that they may be sent to the temporary daycare we have set up, or with Chef Hatchet at the stage!"**

Suddenly, Bridgette felt sorry for whatever child was left with the brutal, disgusting cook.

**"FINALLY! The person who passes the finish line first gets everything in their cart for free, as well as something extra, second place gets seventy five percent off, third gets twenty five, and forth place gets twenty percent off, making this game a very special deal for anyone looking to get the best price for their stuff!"**

"HELL YEA!"

"THIS IS FUCKING AWESOME!"

"MOMMY, DON'T LEAVE ME WITH THE SCARY MAN, **PLEASE MOMMY!**"

**"The finish line is, obviously enough, at the west side of the super store, or, for those who don't know their rights from their lefts, the produce area!"** Bridgette turned her cart around, mentioning for Cody to get on her left since the wooden cube of a wheel was now exposed for all to see. As they began to go the other way, despite them seeing it only a few minutes ago, she completely forgot about something rather important that she realized would make their plan go haywire.

The bear guarding aisle 19.

"Cody," Bridgette placed a hand on his shoulder, smiling as he looked at her, "Focus on me as we walk, okay?" He nodded, showing her a small, goofy smile as they walked past the bear. Right as they pushed past the bear, not even two feet away from it, it yawned, stretching its plump, fuzzy arms in her line of sight.

"What was that?" He asked, trying to turn his head towards the bear. Bridgette grabbed his head and made him look at her as she quickened her pace.

"We got trouble Cody!" She stated as she forced the cart to go faster.

**"WOW FOLKS!"** Chris shouted though the speakers. **"We have one cart close to the finish line already! Though we can't see who it is exactly, we can tell that they just past aisle nineteen! Go get'em FOLKS!"**

"GO GO GO!" Cody shouted, though he didn't have to, as he held the plain, plastic longsword in his right hand. Around fifty people ran at them from the front, causing her to pull behind Cody and watched as he forced some of the people to dodge his cart, knocking some of them with the plastic longsword at the same time. Bridgette made sure that she wasn't slowed down by the swarm of people, but the wooden cube of a wheel WAS slowing her down a bit too much for her liking.

"They both must have the wooden wheeled carts! GET THEM!" Bridgette heard someone shout as she kicked a random guy away from her. She, thanks to Cody's frontal assault, managed to break through, but saw that Cody himself was further up than she was.

"CODY!" She screamed, trying to push the cart faster than she already was as he turned around, forcing the people who were around him to fall at the sudden movement. As soon as he was close enough to her, he forced the cart forward, grabbing the few random t-shirts he had in the baby seat for throwing before letting go. The swarm of people who were running towards them from behind had to stop due to a third of the group falling to the cart, causing some of the others to trip or stumble as well.

"I'm getting in!" Bridgette slowed down as he jumped into the safe zone, though he did bump his elbow on the cart. "Ow!"

"You ready, because I'm pushing now!" She was already pushing before she finished her sentence, watching as he crouched on his knees with a t-shirt in his left hand and his plastic longsword in his right. "To your left!" She noticed two people running past the security guard in aisle 44, hence her sudden warning.

"Taste double XL!" Cody rolled the shirt and threw it at the woman's face, causing her to stop and stumble.

_'Why are there so many cashier check outs! Don't most super stores have as little of them as possible to force people to shop longer?'_ Bridgette thought to herself as she heard s loud screech from behind. She slightly turned her head to see a, for lack of a better word, brown haired prostitute with a shopping cart running up towards them.

"Give me that cart girl!" The woman spat out. Bridgette turned the cart, narrowly dodging the woman's cart and kicked her foot, causing the woman to stop as Cody struck her head with the longsword. The woman, instead of stumbling like she expected, grabbed Cody's arm and tried to pull him out. Seeing this, she pushed her cart forward, grabbed the woman by her long, brown pony tail, and yanked on it HARD. "You BITCH!"

"Thanks Bridgette!" Cody pushed the woman's head away, and gave her a hard strike to it, causing Bridgette to let go of the ponytail and run faster. Thanks to the woman, more people were catching up to them from all corners.

_'At least I can see the finish line from here.'_ The finish line was classic. It had the checkered ribbon, two metal polls holding the ribbon, and an intern she recognized from the island holding a checkered flag and a whistle. At this rate, with the people coming so close to them, especially with three ahead of them with shopping carts of their own, she knew that they were going to be hard pressed for a way out.

"Here they come Bridge!" Cody shouted, throwing a rolled up t-shirt at a chubby man with a shopping cart. The shirt to the face slowed the man down, but didn't stop him from charging towards them. "Charge straight for the one I threw the shirt at!" Not knowing what he was planning, she nodded and forced the cart towards the right. As they got close enough for a collision, Cody jumped out of the cart, landing on a box in the guy's cart and struck him in the head.

"Fuck!" Cody struck the man's hands, causing him to let go, and jumped in front of the man.

"THANKS!" Bridgette saw Cody turn the cart around, forcing the man to hurry past a security guard as he charged forward.

_'Cody, you magnificent geek you.'_ Bridgette hurried towards him, knocking her cart into the other two cart pushers in order to get past them. She felt a hand grab her and turned to see the man that Cody struck glare at her.

"Let go of the cart, NOW!" He yelled, pulling on her arm. Her response to this was a kick to his balls, smirking as he let go and fell to the ground. Sadly, the third cart pusher slammed his cart into hers, causing her to bump into the man on the ground, and swerve out of control. By the time she managed to stop the cart from turning, she noticed that Cody was just turning back to save her, the third cart pusher was closing in on her, and that there were around fifteen people who were running towards her location. Taking a page out of Cody's book, she grabbed two shirts from the baby seat and threw them at the cart pusher, only for them to land inside of his cart.

"Dammit!" She yelled as she pushed the cart towards the fifteen people coming towards her, keeping an eye on the third cart pusher as well. Right as he was about to ram his cart at her legs, another cart hit his, forcing him to let go as it forcefully knocked two people down.

"You punk!" The man ran towards the unknown person, only for them to punch the man in the face, pushed him to the ground, and pushed their cart next to hers.

"I offer my services of guarding you, only if you allow me to join this cart to yours, deal?" Bridgette widened her eyes at the voice, and turned to see that it was the hooded woman from before.

"H-"

"Look," The woman began, interrupting her from saying her name, "We don't have much time, and I shouldn't be doing this, especially since this isn't my way of doing things. But even I'm not going to turn the other cheek at keeping my hard earned money to myself. So, deal?"

"Deal!" Bridgette noticed that the woman's cart still had all of the Yu-Gi-Oh cards in it, with the addition of a few posters as well, but paid it no mind as she stepped away from the cart. The woman pushed her cart into hers, forcing more than half of the Magic packs towards the front, as well as drop a few. She quickly picked them up, grabbed the handle of the cart, and pushed as hard as she could.

"Cody, she's with us!" She shouted, causing him to nod, turn towards one of the magazine racks, and rolled up as many as he could into paper balls.

**"AND LOOK AT THIS! THREE PEOPLE HAVE JOINED FORCES IN ORDER TO OVERCOME THE SWARM OF PEOPLE THAT HAVE TARGETED THE LUCKY CONTESTANT! THEY'RE ONLY TWENTY AISLES AWAY FROM THE FINISH LINE PEOPLE! WILL THEY BE THE ONES TO HAVE ALL OF THEIR STUFF FOR FREE?"** Bridgette heard the applause, swears, and screams of many people at the same time, causing her to wince as her sixth sense began to act up again. Suddenly, a loud, mechanical roar became the loudest sound, making her turn to see a Mitsubishi Lancer, though she couldn't tell the year of the car, speeding down the large aisle towards them.

"Oh that is so FUCKING UNFAIR!" The woman and Cody shouted, though this made Bridgette simply run faster, forcing as much energy as she could into her legs. Luckily for her, the people who were trying to get her cart before had the right idea to get out of their way, most likely to avoid being ran over by the car.

"How the hell did they get the keys to that thing?" The woman shouted as she turned to look. "Oh, wait, THEY'RE GODDAM EMPLOYEES!" With that said, the woman ran towards one of the random wheeled shelves of DVDs, and pushed it towards the Lancer. "Go Bridgette! I'll keep on pushing stuff in their way!" Bridgette nodded and turned into aisle twelve, pushing through the toddler supplies in hope that whoever was in the car wouldn't follow her through the aisle.

Sadly for her, they continued to follow her, destroying shelves, clothes, and hundreds of dollars worth of products with each turn of the car's tires. She made a left, forcing the cart to go through two forgotten pallets of Miller Genuine Draft, and heard the screech of the car's breaks being put to use.

"Go Bridgette go!" She saw Cody running past her with a cart, glancing back to see the two employees were putting the car into reverse. "Taste the wrath of Red Bull!" She watched Cody throw three cans at the car, slightly cracking the windshield with one of them, before shaking her head and sprinted towards the finish line.

_'I'm gonna make it, I'm gonna MAKE IT!'_ Bridgette barely noticed the cart that suddenly struck her joined ones, making her crash into a bin full of cabbages. As she got out of the bin, she saw that the prostitute was about four steps away from their cart, only for the woman to grab her by the ponytail and threw her over her shoulder. From where she stood, she could see the woman's emotionless glare as it focused on the prostitute, until they looked up at her, and showed her the more humane side she knew the hidden individual had.

"Get going or else I'll claim the fame for myself Bridgette!" Bridgette grabbed the cart and hurried past the finish line, noticing that a small, bald headed kid was pushing his own empty cart that had two wooden, football like wheels on the front of the cart. Much to her amusement, everyone was running past him, letting him get through the crowd of desperate people as if he never existed.

**"AAANNNDDD WE HAVE A FIRST PLACE WINNER!"** Chris declared through the intercom, making many people scream, some in joy, others in anguish, and a few in unnecessary anger. Then, she noticed that Chris was running up to her with three interns, all whom she saw on the island, with a shocked look on his face. **"Who would of thought that our first prize winner would be Bridgette folks! Tell me, how are you feeling right about now?"** Before she could answer, or ask him why he still had the microphone that allowed everyone to hear him from the intercom system on, she heard a rather loud "CLA-CLONK" and turned to see Cody fall onto the ground with his head pressed against the ground. She noticed that the cart he used was now lodged in one of the pop machines, letting cans of soda roll onto the ground with ease.

"Oww, did anyone get the license plate of the truck that hit me?" He wheezed out. Bridgette helped him stand up, and turned to see Chris with his own sly, demented smirk that oozed trouble.

**"What's this? TWO Total Drama Island contestants TOGETHER in the same place? Do I smell ROMANCE?"** As one of the cameramen interns came closer, Bridgette shoved the camera out of her face, glaring at Chris at the same time.

"We're only here to get stuff for a birthday party we're planning for a friend of ours." She lied, slowly pushing the cart closer for the exit. Chris put his foot on the front of their cart, keeping it in place as he looked at the cards.

**"Wow, I'm guessing you're celebrating a friend of Cody's then, considering how much nerd stuff is here! Haha~!" **The show host laughed, causing her to look at Cody, who was looking down with an embarrassed blush on his face.

**CRASH**

"Good grief..." Bridgette glanced at the small kid who made his cart fall over. He must of been six, maybe eight at the most, wearing a yellow shirt with a black zigzag around the lower torso, and a pair of brown shorts. The kid had the, in her opinion, the cutest bald head with a swirl of hair on top. Beeps came from a beeper on Chris' shirt, making him focus on the little kid, and allowing her, whether he knew it or not, to hurry out of the superstore with Cody a few steps behind her. With one last glance over her shoulder, she noticed the hooded woman nod, pointing to one of the other exits, and began running towards it.

"Do you want me to take over?" Cody asked. She shook her head, happy to see that no one was running out, towards, or into the superstore at the moment, especially since she didn't want to outrun a car again.

"Thanks for all your help Cody. I don't think I would of survived without you." At this, the blush on Cody's face darkened, making him chuckle as he looked away from her.

"It was nothing Bridgette. I'd never leave a friend in need, but I have to admit, that Hunter girl had some killer moves!"

"Hunter girl?"

"You ever play Left 4 Dead?" She shook her head. How would she play anything if her parents didn't allow the use of most common technology, especially game systems? In fact, the 'newest' game system she had was a Game Boy Advance! "Well, its a zombie shooter game with a few 'special' zombies. One of them is called the Hunter, because it hides in the shadows, only comes out when you least expect it, and always wears its hood up to cover its face." Since she didn't know much about the newer games, or zombies, she just smiled and nodded, looking around for Noah's car so they could put all of their cards in the back seat. A few steps and turns later, she couldn't help but to drop her jaw at how the woman was, not only leaning against Noah's car nonchalantly, but was filing her nails.

"Oh, there you are." She shoved the nail file into her right pocket. "I parked my car next to yours, just to make things easier." Bridgette watched as Cody walked up to the hooded woman and brought his right hand out for a handshake.

"Thanks for all the help! We would of been in-"

"Less talky, more grabby! I need to get going." Annoyed at how she was acting, Bridgette separated the carts and carefully pushed it to her.

"There is no reason to get bossy Heather. No one is-" Before she could finish, she felt a familiar hand slapped against her mouth.

"Ssshhh! I don't want anyone to know about this, remember!" Heather growled out, causing Cody to widen his eyes at the revelation. "And if you dork-o say anything that relates to my name, I swear you'll regret it faster than you regretted letting Trent hook up with Gwen!" At **that**, Bridgette pushed Heather off of her, and, much to her own shock, forced her against Noah's car.

"You had no right to say something like that to him!" Cody grabbed her and pulled, separating the two from each other. After an awkward stare down, Heather sighed and nodded.

"I'm sorry." The fact she quickly apologized surprised Bridgette, and it sounded as if she actually meant it! "I'm just stressed at people finding out my hobby. You wouldn't believe how many creeps I've had to kick away just to enjoy my daily rituals. I can't even go to the spa with my mother anymore like we use to do on the weekends because of those low lives!"

"At least you haven't had stalker Sierra on you." Cody mumbled, causing her and Heather to look at him.

"Actually, I have. She broke into my house four months ago and nearly got into my room, if it wasn't for my dad breaking a window with one of his golf balls that hit her head." Bridgette didn't know what to think of what she was seeing. Heather, sneaky, two-faced, silver tongued Heather was being civil, to Cody, and actually agreed with him to a sense!

"Lets get everything put away so we can head out okay?" Cody stated with a wide smile. "Noah's gonna flip when we tell him what happened, excluding you of course." Heather shook her head and pulled out her nail file. Then, faster than Bridgette could see, placed the tip against his throat.

"Oh you can tell Mr. Cynical all you want, but tell _anyone else_ and you'll find yourself watching yaoi, two girls and a cup, and all of the 4Kids dubbed shows I can find, got it?" Cody slowly nodded, causing Heather to smirk as she put her nail file away.

Wow, she **was** evil!

-Line-

After Heather's threat, and a oath of secrecy, Bridgette helped Heather put all of her cards in her car, a Firebird of all things, leaving Cody to put their Magic cards away. Oddly enough, the three of them finished putting them away at the same time, and talked for a bit more, and exchanging each others phone numbers, or in her case, house number. The look on Heather's face when she told her that she didn't have a computer, let alone a laptop or a cell phone was priceless, though it forced her to tell Heather where she lived, including writing down her address so they may go shopping to "bring you back to the twenty first century" as Heather put it.

The drive back to the beach was lively, mainly due to Bridgette asking Cody on things from his perspective during their little adventure. He spoke of how he accidentally threw the plastic longsword he was using at a random person, causing him to turn around to grab it, and lost his cart to the prostitute who slammed into her. He found another cart that was wedged between two clothing racks and ran towards a guy who, from what he said, was going to jump on top of her right as she was about to pass the finish line. Thanks to his prevention, he crashed, and caused Chris to catch awkward footage of them.

Speaking of Chris, on every radio station they could find, something about the contest in Mc Ashy's was talked about. Whether it be the amount of damages in the store, how much cash Chris had to pay up for the winners, and even about the little kid who won second place, though they never said the kid's name. The two employees who drove the Mitsubishi in the store were arrested by the police for multiple reasons, which brought a smile to their faces, and the last cart, the one with the wooden pyramids, had to be carried by whoever claimed it, since the pyramid wheels wouldn't move at all.

She had to admit, despite everything that happened, she found herself enjoying what happened. She got to have fun with Cody, got on good terms with Heather, and, as odd as this sounds, managed to win first place in one of Chris' contests! Neither of them didn't have to do anything as dangerous as they had to do on the island, and she hoped that she would never have to do anything like that after today's events. The only downside would be a much larger fan-base, especially if people think that she's dating Cody now.

_'Weren't you just telling yourself how much you were enjoying his company?'_ The voice from before asked. She did, she really did enjoy hanging out with him, but there was no need to rush anything with this new feeling for the nerd. _'Hey!'_ The voice called out. _'If he's a nerd, then you're now a nerdette.'_

_'Shut up.'_ Was her reply to the spirit, focusing on the parking lot she just pulled into. Waiting with a gray bucket in his hands was Noah with a smirk on his face.

"Hey you two love birds. Whens the wedding?" Bridgette turned the car around and began to drive away, laughing as she heard Noah shout "WAIT! I WAS ONLY KIDDING!" And ran after his car. Cody laughed at Noah's antics as well, except he was the one to convince her to stop the car so they could let Noah get back in his car. As she stopped, he lowered down his window and looked at Noah with a smile.

"You had to admit dude, seeing you run was a bit funny."

"Oh ha ha ha Casanova!" Noah grumbled as he looked at the back seat of the car. "I'm gonna assume that you two put the rest in the trunk?" Bridgette nodded, not that it mattered, as she stepped out of the car.

"It was nice seeing you guys! Maybe we can hang out tomorrow?" She said, somewhat shyly, to the two. She didn't expect for both of them to look at her with a stern stare, in Noah's case, and a saddened from Cody.

"Where do you think you're going malibu?"

"Uh, home?" Noah tossed his phone at her, forcing her to catch it, unless she wanted to pay for something she knew would of been expensive.

"Call your folks and tell them you'll be hanging with a few friends. We're splitting the spoils of war tonight!" Bridgette nodded, not sure of what to say about the more open Noah in front of her, and proceeded to call her mom. Knowing her mom, since she was her best friend, she knew that she'd be the one to pick up, rather than her father.

"Hi mom-" Bridgette held the phone above her head, letting her mom scream to the air, causing a few of the surrounding seagulls to fly away in fear of the loud voice. Then, when she was sure the screaming stopped, she brought the phone back to her ear. "I'm REALLY sorry mom. It just sorta happened on the spot, really! Anyway, I was wondering if I could go and hang with, yes, he'll be there with a friend of his. He's a contestant from the show too. Mom, don't say that about him! He wouldn't look good in a brown tux, he's more of a casual tux, opps?" She looked up at Cody, who was turning red as Noah laughed, putting his hand on the trunk of the car to keep himself up. "So I can go? Thanks mom! I'll be back before ten, thanks!"

"Tuxedos huh? You sure there isn't a wedding in motion?" Noah asked, only to get a phone to the face. "Okay, I deserved that one. Now, onwards! Get in your car and flash your lights when your car is warmed up. We'll lead you off to Cody's place since its closer." Bridgette nodded, smiling at Cody as she walked to her car with her keys in hand.

_'Yep, my surf board is still here.'_ She got into her car, turning it on as she made sure that nothing was stolen from it. _'I can't believe I didn't surf today.'_ She realized, smiling to herself as she recalled everything that happened as she got to the beach. She met Cody and Noah, getting to see the real them, rather than the masks that they held up on the show, and saw how brotherly they acted with one another. She learned how to play Magic, The Gathering, earned Cody's trust, Noah's approval if she wanted to date Cody, got over three hundred dollars worth of cards for free, and befriended Heather, or was now on servant level, she wasn't sure yet.

_'Do I want to date Cody?'_ She asked herself, locking her seat belt in place before flashing her lights. As soon as she did that, Noah sped out of the parking lot, causing her to hurry after them with a smile on her face. Despite her not knowing if she wanted to date him or not, she knew one thing...

Thanks to him, she was going to have a much more interesting life than she had before.

-Author Notes-

Hiya one and all! What you see here is a prequel for a future story I have in mind. Actually, to be more specific, two of them, but the next one is the one that comes next, for obvious reasons. Now that I've gotten that out of the way, I'm a big fan of Cody and Noah as characters, not as a couple, so I had an idea based on this for a long while now. Instead of Bridgette being the main character, it was to be Noah in Mc Ashy's heading to the card shop, only to see Lindsay walking around the collectable section, trying to find Tyler a pack of sports cards for his birthday. I might actually write that one still, but that's still left up to the doves above.

Oh yes, before I forget, everything about the rules and what-not with Magic, The Gathering I learned from my friends, who taught me how to play. Since I'm no expert, nor will I ever be at it, I tried to keep the info Cody delivered bare. So I apologize for any mistakes with the information given. And yes, in this story, Innistrad isn't out yet, though is on the way, hence Cody's happiness at seeing the booster boxes.

As for what caused me to write this little bad boy, you can thank TDI Charlie Brown and his contest, which is described in his humorous one-shot "Total Drama Fan Fiction Aftermath II The Contest". If you're a fan of Cody and Bridgette, write something for the contest and see if you're the lucky one to win the prize! If not, well, we could always use more Cody/Bridgette, Cody/Anyone except Noah or Gwen pairings on the site. Not that I have anything against Cody/Gwen, but its too overdone in my opinion. And yes, I made a reference to the little man himself. No idea how that happened! His image kinda wedged himself into my head as I wrote the story and wha-bam! Cameo of him in it!

Oh, as for my (1) note next to aisle 19, it's a reference to season 1 episode 9, when Cody was voted off due to his injuries with the bear, hence the bear guarding the aisle. I felt bad for him in that episode...

ANYWAY! Thanks for reading, if you haven't yet, give TDI Charlie Brown's fanfictions a look, they're really good, and please review!

Until next time!


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